Hamas leader Yehia Sinwar spent years overseeing a secret police force in the Gaza Strip that monitored everyday Palestinians and built dossiers on youth, journalists and those who questioned the government, according to intelligence officials and a trove of internal documents reviewed by The New York Times.
The unit, known as the General Security Service, relied on a network of Gaza informants, some of whom reported their own neighbors to the police. People ended up in security files for attending protests or publicly criticizing Hamas. In some cases, records show that authorities tracked people to determine whether they were in a romantic relationship outside of marriage.
Hamas has long run an oppressive system of governance in Gaza, and many Palestinians there know that security officials keep a close eye on them. But a 62-slide presentation on the General Security Service’s activities, just weeks before the Oct. 7 attack on Israel, reveals the extent to which the largely unknown unit infiltrated the lives of Palestinians.
